It has, as of late, come to my attention that longboarding is the same thing as skateboarding. I also discovered that I have friends who are avid longboarders. I decided to take advantage of the fact that my friend, Brent, could teach me.
On a Friday afternoon we had nothing better to do, so he decided to begin my longboarding education. We went to an empty church parking lot and he told me to get on the board. Apparently I'm "goofy" when it comes to the foot I push with, but whatever. He showed me the basics of how to make it go and whatnot. I learned how to just get going, but I couldn't make it keep going yet. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, and, without falling, I was soon making slow progress across the parking lot. We didn't have time for much that day, so we decided to go again soon.
About a week later he decided to take me to the Provo Riverwalk Trail so I could try going on a short straight area, just to see how I would do. I slowly learned to push when I was already going. The straight part was no big deal, and we soon found ourselves about 3 miles down the twisting and turning trail. He claimed that I'm a natural, but that's Brent talking, not me. This day was a killer for me because it was such a long distance that I traveled, and I was brand new, but it was a good thing, trial by fire and all.
My next trial was going down the canyon, at night. This was difficult because I couldn't see where I was putting my foot down to push. It was so fun though.
With one more trial run on the river trail, Brent decided to test fate and we decided to go down 900 E at midnight one night. For those who don't know, it's a fairly steep road and it's generally busy. I was pretty nervous, but we went. The road was much busier than it usually is at night but we finally made it down safely.
I think that this is sufficient for me to be able to mark item 21 off my list. The journey continues!
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